Newish member, first post, been eyeballing RE's for some time now. I started out on a Sportster, moved over to dirtbikes for a few years, then a 79 Bonneville which morphed into Speed Triples and various sportbikes for the last ten years. Racing around the backroads is fun, did some track days.. but that is expensive! (as are tickets, if and when you get one!) and have come around to the conclusion that there is no future but doom and gloom for me in this sort of behaviour, Tires, chains, sprockets, brake pads, lost job, shot career etc etc. Will be slowing down, and looking forward to taking the wife on the backroads for enjoyable day rides, maybe some overnight camping trips, solo leisure rides.....and some commuting to work. Vintage style bikes are in my blood and the Enfield it is. Debating between a nice low mileage early or one of the new C5's. I do my own servicing, tinkering, mods, etc so that's not an issue. I know what it takes to maintain this type of bike. My questions are: What problems or issues are there with the first model years (pre-kick) of the unit Enfields? And safe recommended sustained cruising speeds? Secondary roads are not a problem, but for a longer blast on the interstate such as to make a little time or in a pinch to get somewhere, what is the concensus? Thanks, and I can't wait to bag the perfect Bullet! Lorin

65mph on any road is making time in my book, and for the machine, I'm sure it would be considered a blast! So there are differing opinions perhaps.......I'm out in the country where there are nothing but desolate 2 lanes through the woods and farmland with no traffic from the moment I roll out the driveway, but I should'nt have to look at any entrances to highways as off limits or a point of no return!

With these new models that have the UCE engine, I wouldn't consider an Interstate Highway as a barrier. They can go there. It's just a matter of keeping the speeds down to what is suitable for a single-cylinder 500 that isn't real big on power.

I think a cruising speed of 65mph is possible and practical.My "rule of thumb" is to use 75% of max speed as the limit for cruising speed, and the UCE bikes top-out around 80mph or a tad more, so between 60-65mph seems like a reasonable figure.

I commute on the Interstate. I typically run an indicated 70 mph, which according to the GPS is actually 65, but I've made the entire trip between indicated 75 and 80, so running at true speeds of 70 mph for fairly long periods is doable. (My commute is 36 miles each way, 33 of which are on I-10.)

On a freeway, my 2011 G5 seems to be happiest running around 58-62 mph.At that speed, it can just purr along for hours.At 65-70 I can tell it is working pretty hard and even though it can reach an indicated 80 at speeds over 70 it is about out of breath.That's with just me in the saddle and I weigh about 155 pounds.

Although the engine has been redesigned and can take these freeway speeds, it is still an old fashioned single cylinder 500cc thumper and its power is about the same as the bikes built in 1955 when a speed over 60 mph was considered fast.("My God! He's going at a mile a minute!" )

It's just a personal opinion but I would shy away from the non kick starter bikes.Just today after leaving my bike unattended for 5 days it was sulking and didn't want to start using the electric starter. My using the kickstarter must have told it 'I still love you' so it fired up on the third attempt. Definitely a nice feature to have.

From an American point of view where a vehicle goes into production and is only changed if some major problem surfaces, the Indian built Royal Enfield is rather unique.They are constantly incorporating small improvements into the bikes during production.For instance, a bike like mine only a few years older has a wiring harness in the headlight nacelle that looked like a total snarl. The harness in mine looks like a tidy rat's nest.Perhaps a better example is the oil filter cap.The older ones consist of the cap, a spring, a metal plate (filter bypass) and they are all loose pieces. This makes changing the filter a pain in the ass.They redesigned it by adding a thru bolt and packing so the newer ones are 'unitized' making an oil filter change quite easy.Buying a newer bike gets the owner newer, better designs and parts.

Anyway, you seem to understand that the Bullet is an old fashioned bike with a low powered thump and I'm sure your going to really love it.It is the essence of motor biking from a time when riding was a pleasure rather than an 'on the edge' experience.

With all that's said above, I enjoy riding my 2011 C5 on the back roads, I frequently enjoy riding the freeways I5 and 99, although I feel much more comfortable riding the HWY 88 and HWY 26 roadways here in Northern CA, basically its really a preference thing mostly.

Yeah, I'm not really sure why people say that the UCEs don't handle the freeway. I regularly ride on the freeway and I find that if I stay below 65mph it's perfectly comfortable. I've had bigger bikes that will do over 100mph and I find that over 65mph is uncomfortable on any bike unless you have something with a full fairing. In California the truck speed limit is 55mph or 60mph on the really fast straight roads. You can just sit and cruise comfortably for hours in the right lane at just above 60mph and still be in the normal flow of traffic. It's a right lane bike and that suits me fine.

As Ace said, I've done several long rides. My trip to Cali and back (1600 miles total) was mostly 55mph and under on Rte. 1/101 with a little 65mph and above near the Bay area. On my trip to Seattle (500 miles total) I was running late and so ran 60-65mph for about 2 hours and then WOT for about an hour. Mostly I ride to and from work almost every day, 11 miles each with about 4 miles of 55-65mph freeway.

I ride solo and weigh about 225#. The bike will cruise 55-65mph all day for me with no problems. There's not much reserve power left so if you have long uphills, carry a heavy passenger, or need extra power to pass it may not be entirely comfortable.

I think if you're mostly doing back roads and secondary highways with the occasional freeway shot you'll be fine. If you think you'll need more power then maybe look at the Bonnie's or wait until RE releases their upcoming twin. No set release date on that yet

And I switched to the RE from a Ducati Monster 800 for the same reasons you're doing it. Ducatis induce a complete lack of self contol and sense of responsibility in me. Just switching from hanging your head over the front wheel all the time to a bike with a comfy upright seating position where you can actually enjoy the scenery really gets you into a more relaxed mind set where you're not looking to hit the apex of every turn.

Excellent feedback I did test ride a 2012 C5 classic this past saturday but only around town and below 50mph, (as well as have test rode an 06 Bullet back in 09) Other than the bars being swiveled upwards too much, the throttle cable too loose, and a seat I'd either replace or resculpt, everything else was fine for my 6' 205lb lump. The sustainable speeds everyone is quoting is perfect for what I'm looking to do. Only thing I need to do now is decide which bike goes....my MZ1000S or my Benelli TNT Cafe Racer. Talk about going from one extreme to another!

All the bars seem to be rotated too high, not sure why. And the C5 seat stinks. I removed the stock cover and foam ( very easy) and built up some layers of very firm closed cell foam used for kayak seats. I then sculpted it to fit. I can go about 6 hours before it starts to get uncomfortable.